The housing and containment of small household pets, especially for travel, present perennial problems and responsively various devices have heretofore become known to serve such purposes. Generally, known structures have been designed specifically for housing or for carriage, but not for both functions, and most such structures have not been of a collapsible nature. The instant invention in contradistinction provides a container that may be used for housing, containment and carriage of pets, while yet providing collapsibility to a compact form during non-use periods.
Pet housing structures commonly have been created primarily for outdoor use and by reason of this purpose, such structures have generally been formed of massive rigid materials, both to protect the pet from its environment and to provide a reasonably durable structure that is relatively maintenance free. In modern culture, however, many household pets, and especially smaller dogs and cats, are maintained indoors at all or substantially all times and by reason of this large heavy outdoor type housing units are not well adapted for maintenance of such pets. Various structures, in the nature of a basket-like device with internal padding have become known for indoor pet maintenance, but such devices do not provide a containerized space wherein the pet may be confined and in which the pet is substantially enclosed to simulate a primitive den-type habitat which is instinctively desired by most pets, even those of highly domesticated nature. Our invention solves this problem by providing a peripherally defined, light-weight structure that defines a containment chamber with various orifices for selective closure, if pet containment is desired.
Indoor pet housing structures often must be maintained in relatively cramped and crowded environs, and by reason of this, it is desirable that such structures be of a collapsible nature to allow convenient storage during periods of non-use. Neither baskets nor rigid housing units have generally provided collapsibility, and what few rigid housing units have been collapsible have generally had substantial mass and are not collapsible to a small volume of configuration convenient for storage. Our housing structure in contradistinction provides a five-surface pyramidal structure peripherally defined by a flexible fabric cover releasably carrying on its inner surface a rod frame having elements along each edge that interconnect the five pyramidal surfaces. All rods are releasably connected to allow removal and collapse of the peripheral fabric cover into a small, conveniently shaped volume for storage.
It is often necessary for various reasons to transport pets and in so doing it is convenient and sometimes necessary, especially in the case of cats, to confine the animals during transportation or at other times. This need has been recognized, and various containers have become known for such purpose, but generally those containers have been specialized structures usable only for the single purpose of transportation. Our housing structure in distinguishment may be used for pet containment during transportation or at other times without any modification. We provide closed or closable, orifices in the structure to allow pet containment, and we provide a flat, rigid bottom panel that fits upon the bottom element of the flexible peripheral cover to provide appropriate support for a contained animal. A looped strap in the upper portion at the apex of the pyramid provides a handle to aid carriage. Our container is well suited for pet transportation because of its light weight and foldable nature. The container provides an additional benefit in pet transport when it is also used as a housing unit, as the transported animal is habitually familiar with the structure and the transportation process therefore is less upsetting to the animal because of the familiar surroundings.
Our invention resides not in any one of these features per se, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of our invention that give rise to the functions necessarily flowing therefrom.